Nothing off the shelf, but I almost bid on a Nicolai BMX frame on eBay a few years ago, didn't bother and then it sold dirt cheap. Wish I'd gone for that.
Dekerf and Bontrager Privateer are two I regret not buying.
First bike review I ever read was a comparison between a Pace RC100, and a Fat Chance Team Comp. I lusted after the Fat Chance, but the mindset changed over the years, and I ended up with an RC200 F4 (then F7 and F8), all absolutely awesome bikes, so fast handling they'd have the unwary on their arse in no time at all, but never ever got the Fat Chance. I'd still love to have a go on one 30 years later.
Yeti 575. After 2 trips to Morzine, my decided my Sugar1 wasn’t the best bike for it.
Late 2005, early 2006 was speccing a build with the lbs. As the Sugar1 was top of the range, the Yeti was going to be adorned with XTR, Chris King etc. Then found out FB jnr was on the way so the Yeti was binned.
Regret not getting it but it would be on 26” wheels, skinny seatpost so no wide choice of dropper, old style geometry and possibly on triples (hadn’t decided on double & bash yet).
It's funny, there are some of those longed for bikes that I'd still buy. I'd definitely buy a Fortitude if I ever saw one for sale. And I thought the same about a Trek 69er too, but there was one on eBay recently and I just couldn't bring myself to buy it - just seemed so wildly impractical and I struggled to see where/when I'd use it.
i have always bought every bike that i have wanted. and there has been many.
thing is i only lust after certain kinds of bike. full sus bikes are never on my radar. or fancy fast road bikes.
so all my bike wants have been achievable.
Wandered into my LBS back in 2001 to find an Orange road bike with curly bars and all. Some sort of prototype/trial. Priced less than a grand, think it may have been under £800. Was already waiting for an Orange MTB to arrive so bike budget was blown, but wanted it for the rarity factor. I'd just about decided I could stretch to it but left it too long and it was gone next time I dropped in
@corroded - you can rectify the missed kona cinder cone right now on ebay. Everyone needs an n+1 retrobike and no it’s not mine.
I nearly bought a Cannondale Slate frame set that was for sale on here last year.
Bought a Spesh Diverge from eBay in 2018 and the seller emailed me asking if I wanted to sell it back to him and like a knob I agreed, only had it two weeks.
Orange Blood.
Talking of BMX, I always really wanted a Haro Freestyler*, was never in a place to actually own one. I did own a Kuwahara mountain bike for a while as that was another big BMX want as a kid, so kinda scratched an itch a bit.
* Was one of the reasons the Stooge intrigued me, I'm sure I recall reading that the Stooge twin toptube was a homage to the 80's BMX's
Turner 5 spot, the original one....
There was also a gorgeous pink HT in one of the early STW mags, which I coveted for many years, but can't remember what it was now.....
Transition bottlerocket. Or even a Preston FR. I kinda preferred the old slightly mental but good value transition. Also a mate had one and it was amazing
DBR Axis TT. Utterly lovely bit of grey. Saw one on eBay for £450 ish and almost went for it.
Shortly afterwards a Dave Yates Vulcan came up. I put a reminder in my diary for the auction and missed it by 5 mins. It went for a couple of hundred quid. Gutted.
A Greg Fuquay frame years ago. By the time I had the money (or at least decided to spend it) he was out of busines 😑
Also, the Cotic Soul MK4 frame on the classifieds here about a year ago. Same deal, couldn't decide, then decided it was a no brainer and had just sold. Hen's teeth.
Only two- a poo brown Pitch Pro, and a pink Orange 224.
I started riding pretty much exactly when the Pitch Pro was £900, and I should have just bought it. Especially in poo brown, it was so beautiful. Ahead of its time, and ludicrous value, I spent more than that trying to get other bikes I bought to work.
And the 224 Evo, well, it was pink, nuff said. I'd actually bought it, even ordered some pink logos for my boxxers, but the seller got cold feet at the last minute and refunded me. I ended up with a blue one. And it was great but, it wasn't pink. I upgraded that to a black one eventually
Another Fortitude Race owner here, effectively a retro 90s mtb but with big wheels and disc brakes. For 250 as new its my cheapest but most fun bike. Doesn't answer the question but hey ho.
Raw Turner Flux, should have bought one when I could.
So,so many, but didn't have the cash at time.
I did have a 1996 Kona cinder cone, but would have loved an explosiv. However most lust after was a DeKerf or Fuquay. Both our of my price bracket at the time.
An original one of these -
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But it wasn't available in white. So I went for a DP Firebird instead 😥
Closest I got was this -
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Which I still have about 40 years later!
Swarf Contour - No longer made and outside my price bracket
I'm glad Kuco mentioned the Bontrager Privateer. It means that I don't need to refer to one of the emotions that I don't subscribe to, regret. The other one is "favourite" (DM for a boring rant). Other words and phrases I don't use include life hack, side hustle and iconic.
Boy, I'm good at parties.
Late nineties probably, I nearly bought a Kona Humuhumu-nukunuku-a-pua’a single speed with a stars and stripes paint job. Should have taken the plunge.
Not so much almost bought as I couldn’t afford them at the time, but I definitely can’t afford a Brooklyn Machine Works now
*Looks longingly at Tora Bikes…
Alpinestars Al Mega XT. Specifically the one hanging over the stairs in Centresports in Leeds city centre some time in the 1990’s. I’m sure it would be a terrible bike now but I’d not seen anything like it at the time with the oversized tubing and elevated chainstays. Still love to have one in the collection though.
MK1 Stooge.
Cotic Solaris.
I bought my Spesh Camber Evo instead of one of those two. The Evo has been brilliant for my riding but there's often just a little bit of me thinking that the Stooge or Cotic would have just been a little more interesting. Should have bought all 3...
Only from 4/5 years ago but still gutted I couldn’t justify the price. Orange’s titanium version of the P7.
Cotic Soda, I bought a Pastey Howler Ti instead, it was fine but it broke in not that long, chain stay split inside and out. And they'd gone pop by then.
Pace RC100, 200 . I bought a Yo Eddy instead ... so the opposite of Coatesy. I got a deal on the Fat Chance as it had been a display bike at Interbike... I bought it instead of a Bontrager Racelite. It was very nice, in a 90's style.. it was very direct, very stiff, like a big BMX.
Kuco - surely you mean Bontrager Race lite, though I guess a lot of people saw Privateers in shops compared to Santa Cruz originals. I'd stopped riding the Bonty when it was stolen from my garage as it was so soft, bendy compared to a modern bike and the geometry was god for fire road racing , but nothing techy.
The other bike I wish I'd bought was another Bontrager.... some years ago (10?) Keith B was cleaning out his garage and putting stuff on Ebay, including experimental bikes. He has one similar to a Fisher CR7, but I tihnk it had a steel front triangle glued to an aluminium rear. Probably horrid to ridew, but definitely unique
Late 90s - DMR Trailstar instead of my Diamondback Sorento.
Mid 00s Orange Five or Cannondale Prophet MX (the burlier one) instead of a GT I-Drive Ruckus bike and Mongoose Black Diamond Triple Freeride bikes.
Dave Hemmings fade aqua Yo Eddy from Retrobike for me. Had a deal agreed but it was going to push my finances to the limit at the time so backed out. Was around £600/700 and they sell for double that now, at least so I'll never be able to justify one.
Another Fortitude Race owner here. If I hadn't made that impulse purchase, I'd still be really annoyed with myself.
That'll be a 2005/6 Enduro for me. An LBS had an S-Works frame for sale, I had doubts about the 5th Element shock so I never went through with it. I also baulked at the prospect of having to fund a Fox 36 for it.
I knew a guy who had an SX-Trail, I got to have a go on it a few times and it was an absolute beast of a bike. Long, low, slack and quite a step forward over the 2004 Enduro that I had at the time. I still them being ridden round my way, I know that there are one or two still being used today by forumites too.
They weren't light - especially with a coil shock and 36 Vans - but they were extremely strong and chuckable.
I started riding pretty much exactly when the Pitch Pro was £900, and I should have just bought it. Especially in poo brown, it was so beautiful. Ahead of its time, and ludicrous value, I spent more than that trying to get other bikes I bought to work.
Also. this ^. I had a Marin Wolf Ridge. I paid £1100 for it, because none of the Specialized dealers within a considerable radius could source me a size large Pitch from stock. They definitely were the bargain of the decade.
Not quite "almost bought" but as a kid I loved these. I had a Strika, all my older mates had Grifters, so I badgered my folks for one for xmas. I ended up with a god-awful catalogue special Stratton BMX which fell apart on a daily basis and appeared to have been welded with derision - no fish-scale welds here, a closeup of the seat-tube / top tube join looked like a nasty case of haemorrhoids.
PJM1974
Free MemberI knew a guy who had an SX-Trail, I got to have a go on it a few times and it was an absolute beast of a bike. Long, low, slack and quite a step forward over the 2004 Enduro that I had at the time. I still them being ridden round my way, I know that there are one or two still being used today by forumites too.
I had one of those, time was brutal to it- I got it in 2011 and it was basically as heavy as a dh bike and as capable as a trailbike. Would have been quite a thing in 2005 though.
I had the opportunity to buy an Unno Dash recently. Used but immaculate condition, and the price was good. I dilly dallied, and of course it got snapped up! Still on the radar for the future though...
Funnily enough just had the opportunity to get hold of a much cheaper bike that I missed out on first time round. I had a 2008 Genesis Altitude 853 for a few years, eventually upgrading the frame to the Ti version. Absolutely loved those bikes, but come 2013 I'd bought into 29ers and binned 26" wheels off entirely (no regrets still). Shortly after, Genesis brought out the High Latitude 29er which was to all intents and purposes, a 29er version of the bike I'd known and loved with slightly updated geometry etc... Only because they never did an 853 or Ti version, the inner snob in me wouldn't let myself buy one! Just off to pick up the bargain of the century I found on Facebook classifieds later this week, full XT 11spd, Reba, Hope/stans build for under £300! It's almost certainly gonna be tatty, but so what... It can live in my van and be my hack bike for work...
My friend’s VTR1000 SP1
I missed out on a couple of SP1's when they were sensible money, all 5fig sums now for anything worth buying! That said, they're not that great to ride as a road bike, Aprilia nailed that one much better with the much cheaper RSV...
Got offered my dream bike, an RC45, last year, for what was at the time a very sensible price for one... I even had the cash for it too, although it would have wiped my savings out entirely and me and my GF were looking towards buying a bigger house etc... Since then, house prices have continued to go up, then interest rates have skyrocketed too, and I have been seriously unwell for a few months meaning a house move is totally off the cards... The RC45 has of course appreciated by about 20% in value in the 15 months since I turned it down, which is the real kicker!
I let a haze pino tandem go. I’ve wanted one for a long time, it was the best price and I didn’t buy it.
Also a Brompton S2 with titanium bits. They’ve stopped making them now and the t-line is ridiculously expensive and largely made of unobtanium due to speculators.
Original blur 4x, got a heckler instead and wish I'd gone for it..........
A ball burnished GT zaskar
You missed a good one.
Still the fastest bike I've owned, but also done a fair bit of bike packing too.
I went to Whistler in the summer of 95 with @hot_fiat and another friend. I took my Cinder Cone to ride and it was ace but one of the bike shops in town had a Kona Hot frame, in flame red, hanging behind the counter. It was the lush frame with the custom tubing and was the same size as my Cinder Cone so I could have just transferred everything over and taken it home avoiding any import taxes. I was only 18 and had a credit card from my mum and dad 'for emergencies only' but was very sensible and didn't buy it as at the time I thought debt was 'bad' :-):-)
I still had lots of adventures on Cassandra the Cinder Cone and she's still in my shed but that red Hot frame still taunts me from the past...
Dekerf and Bontrager Privateer are two I regret not buying.
I'd forgotten about those. They were in my thoughts when I bought the Klein, not the Pace.
I had a Kona Explosif Pro in 92/93 (lightly used 2nd hand, very good deal).
Great bike, but I lusted after either a Pace or a Fat Chance, never had the funds at the time.
I scratched the Pace itch a few years ago with an RC200 F8. Fast, but my god it was painfully stiff.
I kinda scratched the Fat Chance itch with a '98 Indy Fab. Still have that and it's lovely 😎
Honda 400/4
wbo
Kuco – surely you mean Bontrager Race lite, though I guess a lot of people saw Privateers in shops compared to Santa Cruz originals. I’d stopped riding the Bonty when it was stolen from my garage as it was so soft, bendy compared to a modern bike and the geometry was god for fire road racing , but nothing techy.
I think you are correct, the one I drooled over was orange with the Bontrager panel on the down tube.
